Vehicles that are used for transporting equipment, supplies, or other items within enclosed areas can hold more items than are easily accessible. For instance, if a person fills a canopy or toneau covered pickup bed with tools, those tools near the tailgate are more accessible than the tools near the front of the bed (e.g., behind the cab of the truck). Other types of storage areas associated with other vehicles suffer from similar shortcomings.
One solution to the problem of accessing items in a vehicle storage area is the use of a bed slide. The term bed slide is meant to include any extendable platform used in the storage area of a vehicle to facilitate access of otherwise hard to reach locations.
Conventional techniques for mounting bed slides result in undesirable modifications of the storage area by drilling holes in the floor of the vehicle storage area for the insertion of bolts or other fastening devices as shown in FIG. 1. This method of fastening the bed slide requires additional hardware as well as defaces and possibly damages the integrity of the vehicle storage area. Additionally, the practice of drilling holes from the topside of the vehicle storage area can result in damage to vehicle components that are located directly beneath the vehicle storage area. These important components may include fuel lines and/or spare tires.
FIG. 1 demonstrates how conventional bed slides are fastened to the vehicle storage area. Traditionally, a bed slide base 120 of a bed slide 100 is affixed to the storage area of the vehicle by fasteners 140. In order to install the fasteners 140, holes are drilled in the floor of the storage area and the fasteners 140 are installed. The traditional fastener-hole mounting system is also a disadvantage if the bed slide is subsequently removed. The installation procedure leaves holes in the storage area of the vehicle upon removal of the bed slide.
With the advent of the Ultimate Utility Vehicle (UUV), further problems for the conventional method of mounting bed slides are introduced. The term UUV is meant to include any vehicle, such as the Chevrolet® Avalanche® or the Cadillac® Escalade® EXT®, or any other vehicle which enables a user to change the body configuration to allow the bed storage area to be either open or closed to the passenger/cab area. With increased access between the storage area and the passenger/cab area, there is an increased concern of injury resulting from the conventional bed slide entering the passenger compartment in a collision. Conventional bed slide systems do not provide a sufficient momentum stop to prevent the bed slide platform 110 from sliding into the front of the passenger/cab area of the vehicle in the event of a severe collision. FIG. 1 demonstrates that the conventional method for stopping the forward motion of a bed slide is either a pin 130 from a latch mechanism or a bolt (not shown). In the event of a head on collision, the pin 130 or bolt is easily bent or sheared thereby allowing the bed slide platform 110 to continue forward into the passenger/cab area of the vehicle.